A copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/311,465, filed Sep. 23, 1994, title "Optically Controlled Actuator" by Glenn E. Miller describes a method for controlling an electrohydraulic control valve (EHV) using frequency modulated light transmitted along an optical fiber. While the method described works in principle, the present method is more efficient in terms of utilization of the available laser diode power. In this regard if the maximum CW laser power is P.sub.m Watts, and it is estimated that the power available may be as low as P.sub.m /10 Watts. The only exception to this might be if the laser diode can be pulsed at much higher peak powers with reduced duty cycle. However, in the present application, the capacitance of the solar cells prevents operation at frequencies much above 30 KHz, and it is believed that pulse lengths must be reduced to a few microseconds before the peak power can be increased. Even then, the product of the peak power and the duty cycle will fall short of the maximum CW power. An embodiment of the present invention describes a method for increasing the utilization of the available CW laser power to up to at least 95% of P.sub.m. This means that a reduced power laser diode will be required to power the EHV.